The Pirate Queen by Patricia Hickman is not the swashbuckling, high-seas adventure you might have been expecting from the title. Rather, it is the story of Saphora Warren, a wealthy socialite who appears to have an ideal life, but whose husband is an inattentive, unreasonable philanderer. On the very day that Saphora packs up her bags, planning to quietly leave her husband, he comes home and announces that he is dying. Furthermore, he wants to go to their coastal home — the very place Saphora had planned to retreat to — to seek treatment, and he wants Saphora to go with him. Subduing her own plans and feelings, Saphora goes with him. Various members of their dysfunctional extended family come to visit over the summer, further wreaking havoc with Saphora’s life, but she strikes up a surprising but beneficial friendship with a quiet, older-than-his-years neighbor boy.
I can’t remember now where I first saw the book recommended, but I picked it up to see what the author did with Saphora and her husband Bender’s story. I can’t really say without giving away the plot, but perhaps more important than the plot are their character studies.
My biggest complaint is one I have mentioned before. I don’t believe every Christian fiction novel needs to have a three point outline of the plan of salvation complete with the “sinner’s prayer,” but whatever it does contain of the gospel needs to be clear and accurate. The advice given to Saphora is kind of nebulous: “Keep looking for answers,” “Jesus invites you to join him on his journey,” “Your life is going to be difficult….but with a little help, you’ll learn to love.” If I were in Saphora’s situation, I would want counsel much more concrete than that.
There were a couple of phrases that struck me as quite nicely written. “The afternoon had been spilled like sweet tea poured out.” And on the subject of not being able to come up with the right thing to say until too late (which I tend to experience!), “Thinking deeply rather than broadly presented so many lost opportunities.”
This is actually a strange little book to me. I don’t mean that negatively, but much of the family’s conversations and interactions were not what I would expect from my own family. Which is fine — different people have different personalities and frames of reference. But though I could enter into Saphora’s angst in dealing with all the unexpected things life throws at her, I couldn’t really fully identify with the characters. The title didn’t really make sense to me until the end, and even then it didn’t seem to fit exactly, considering what a pirate is and how he gets what he wants compared to Saphora’s situation. But maybe I am just missing something.
(Updated to add: The author discusses how she came to write this novel here, and that did help shed light on the pirate allusion.)
If you’ve read this, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I did enjoy the book, however, and the journey Saphora and Bender take.
Stray Thoughts 
Lisa liked it (from Lisa Writes . . .) and so I’ve been curious! I still am, after reading this review and think I would like to read this one.
I haven’t read the book. I know what you mean about some Christian books being vague on salvation…..but I suppose some are written with different purposes in mind……I have read some series which start of in a certain way and then instruct more fully as the series goes on.
Hello Barbara,
As I teach high quality writing to new emerging writers, I also like to teach them how to read fiction. As a novelist who is also a Bible teacher, I teach a basic concept called show-don’t-tell. For the more advanced writer, subtext. To clutter up fiction with “telling” moralizations would ruin the novel because within its form are rules to be followed just as God’s Word guides us to follow Him. I don’t want to issue any spoilers so I won’t “tell” you the subtext that the fans of The Pirate Queen have gotten from the book. But the subtext is woven carefully through the plot so that the take-away hangs with the reader long after it is closed up. “Preachy” Christian novels have gone by the wayside because they were reaching an insular crowd. We are a scattered people, and recognizing our place in culture takes us a step closer to stories that reach beyond our church circles to people who might never enter the church doors. Those are the people I reach with my stories. I hope that helps you to understand my “hybrid” style that many read in book clubs and circles for the value of reading high quality fiction. That is my goal and mission. My stories are not a pulpit, but a relationship born of my own desperate need for Christ’s unsurpassing grace.
Thank you for stopping by, Patricia.
I am quite familiar with the “show, don’t tell” style of writing and I do prefer that to blatant “preachiness.” But I do think the gospel could have been presented more clearly than what it was here.
When my non-Christian mother was alive, I used to pass on to her the Christian fictions books I read, and she loved them. I realize most Christian fiction is not evangelistic, and that’s fine, but she still enjoyed them, and I felt she got a bigger picture of what Christianity was all about by seeing how people of faith interacted. If she were still alive, I would send her this book, and I think she would like it. But I do think only people who were already Christians would have seen and understood the gospel in it. When I was a seeking soul as a young adult and sought a pastor, I wanted his answers as simply, clearly, and plainly as he could tell it, and when my mother came to that point, that’s what she wanted as well. There were many books I passed on to her that did have a clear conversion story with the simple and clear gospel message without becoming preachy or interrupting the flow of the story for a “message.”
I do realize that books are not pulpits — as I said, I don’t expect a sermon or a 3-point outline. And I do realize some books mean to help someone along the way. to plant or water a seed, rather than to give them “the answers.”
Please don’t be dismayed by a less than stellar review or think I was too dumb to “get it” or that I don’t appreciate high quality fiction. 🙂 Not every book will resonate with every reader. I was looking around online this afternoon I did see another book of yours I wanted to try, and I plan to do that soon.
Well, for the record, I didn’t care for “The Pirate Queen” much either. I’m not a Christian (I’m Jewish), but that’s not what bothered me.
To me, the character development was lacking. The characters mostly seemed shallow to me, and I didn’t “believe” in their transformation. It just didn’t have that feeling of reality to me.
Though my giveaway is over, you can still read my full review here: http://1sentencediary.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/book-review-the-pirate-queen-a-giveaway/
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